Fewer Priests, Fewer Parishes: What We Can Do NOW!
end mandatory celibacy · welcome
back married priests
ordain
women deacons
Petition to the International Synod on the Eucharist
This petition will be sent to U.S. cardinals and bishop delegates
to the International Synod on the Eucharist. (A Spanish version is
also available.)
Whereas, nearly half of the world’s parishes and missions have no
resident priest, requiring millions of Catholics to go without Mass
and the sacraments; and
Whereas, mandatory celibacy is a church rule, not a church doctrine, and
both a celibate and a married priesthood are God’s gifts to the Church;
and
Whereas, the early church had many women deacons such as St. Phoebe
who delivered St. Paul’s letter to the Church of Rome, (Romans 16:1-2);
and
Whereas, we the undersigned wish to excercise our right under canon 212.2
to “make our views known about matters which concern the good of
the Church.”
We therefore respectfully request our leaders at the International Synod
on the Eucharist to place the spiritual and sacramental needs of the People
of God above every other consideration and begin a wide-ranging discussion
among laity, priests, pastoral ministers and bishops about the need to
remove mandatory celibacy as a requirement for the priesthood and to open
the diaconate to the tens of thousands of qualified women serving the Church
right now.
1. Only your name, city and state will be sent to U.S. cardinals and
delegates to the 2005 International Synod on the Eucharist. The second
collection deadline is the Feast of the Assumption, August 15, 2005. However,
petitions will continue to be accepted up to the date of the actual synod
(still to be announced)
2. Your name and address (including e-mail) will be entered into a special
database so we can notify you of ongoing developments of a campaign which
may well last several years. If you do not wish to share your contact information
with other likeminded groups, please
tell us.
What can you do?
- Sign the petition online or print a PDF version that you can circulate to collect signatures.
- Volunteer to be a "multiplier”...people who will commit to getting 10 of their friends to also circulate the petition to ten of their friends etc., etc.
- Email friends and family and invite them to sign the petition. A sample
message that you can copy and paste into your email program can be found
here.
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